Craig and Shannon Bratton saw an opportunity for their daughter when a previous owner left behind a beehive. The family now has five beehives and looks for the bees and their daughter to continue thriving.

New Castle residents will notice a rise not just in the temperature in July, but in their water and sewer bills beginning July 15.
The New Castle City Commission approved the second reading of the rate increase June 3. The new minimum water bill will increase from $23.72 to $26.08 per 2,000 gallons or less a month. The new water rate will apply in increments of 100 gallons or less after the minimum rate.

Henry County native Joe Guthrie whose work with Carlton Ward and other conservationists attempting to raise awareness for the need to create a wildlife corridor in Florida was featured in the Henry County Local last summer will have a documentary on the issue aired by KET Channel 68 (Insight Cable Channel 15) on at 5 p.m. June 23, and 4 p.m. June 27.
The documentary follows the expedition that Guthrie and others took from the southern tip of Florida to the northern border with Georgia to highlight the dangers of development to Florida’s unique wildlife.

The 2013 Phase I Tobacco Funds for Henry County are now available to Henry County Landowners/Farmers through an application/Scoresheet process. The applications are available now through Tuesday, June 18, at the Henry County Extension Office. To be included in the funding process, applications must be turned in to the Extension Office by 4 p.m., June 18.

As we scrape uneaten food into the trash can after dinner every night or throw away moldy bread that we just didn’t get around to eating, many of us don’t see that wasted food as wasted money. But in fact, that’s just what it is.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently reported that the amount of uneaten food in American homes and restaurants in 2008 was about $390 in wasted food per each U.S. consumer. This is more than the average American spends on food each month.

Most of us know about “good grief” from Charles Schultz’s Peanuts cartoon. “Good grief, Charlie Brown.” More often than not, the comment was aimed at poor Charlie Brown’s ineptness. Perhaps we’ve all said it to someone... or perhaps said it to ourselves.

In reality, can grief ever be good? It is a painful experience and a wrenching emotion. We experience it in the death of a loved one, in the death of a pet, in the loss of job or a dream, and in a myriad of other life experiences.

I wrote a story about the Henry County Commerce Park and economic development a few issues ago.

Budget restraints continuously challenge small towns and stand as one of the greater hurdles on the development obstacle course. I heard from many sources that a small budget limited the county, the towns and more widely local merchants from drawing business here.

Even at dusk it was still a bit muggy, and when you looked way down Main Street toward the old school, the air above the pavement shimmered. But the heat of the day was dissipating, becoming bearable again, and the youngster — say about 14 — leaned back against one of the cast iron columns buttressing the storefront of the New Castle Pool Hall, and lit a cigarette. Life was good, and although the kid wasn’t old enough to understand a notion of this sort, he did not have a care in the world.